Kids Classes in the SCA & A Game Pouch

My son and I at Pennsic 2010.

Children. For most SCA groups there is an ongoing conversation on how to involve the children more and more into the Society. For a long time we have had youth combat which starts at age six. While that is all well and good the rest of the children (ans there are quite a few in this area under the age of six) are left to their parents and their own devices. For the most part parents make it work. I have brought my oldest son to a few events and you can keep them happy. Just don't expect that you, as a parent, will get to classes or activities that you want to go to. Again, not that big of an issue as long as you're prepared for it. Yet the martial activities are only part of what we do in the SCA.

To that end, there have been two new developments here in the East Kingdom. The first is a Society-wide venture mentioned here, in the East Kingdom Gazette, about a scout-like program that they are trying to get off the ground. I'm very excited about this venture, I must say. The second is a movement started by our most gracious Queen, CCaoilfhionn Augusta. Called the Kids Service Initative, it uses a point system to reward children helping at events. With different chore difficulties and required effort being assigned different point values, each child participating attempts to gain at least ten points. Upon reaching ten points they hand in their form one half hour prior to court and get a token from the hand of the Queen. While this particular activity is mainly run at Royal Progress events however I was deputy autocrat and between the autocrat and I we decided that we would run this. It was a success in that we had three young ladies win ten points and get a token of a tassel from their Excellencies Bergental. 

After seeing how well this worked I thought about other things that worked that I wanted to have at my event that I'm proposing to have next June. I hit a mental block when it came to youth classes. While classes work for older children it doesn't make the most sense for the younger ones. As a parent I know that my schedule depends highly on that of my children. When they nap, eat, and want to play affect what I can do when I go to events. Among all this I try to consider the classes for the youth. Most likely my four year old is too young for most of the offerings and the classes only run once during an event. If he misses it due to napping then that's that. The more I thought about the practice the more it seemed broken somehow. Children nap through it or the few classes clash with other things that mom and dad may want to do. Classes are one thing for the older kids but for the younger set something needs to be done. 

So I got an idea. It's not really a new idea as I'm kind of taking it from work. I work at Old Sturbridge Village. One of the things that we have there is a Craft Center. The concept is simple: a couple of tables with manned tables in a small outbuilding that offer a craft or two throughout the day. It closes at times for lunch but other than that we work to cover on lunch breaks. It works for a larger place so why not for events? My idea is very similar. Place a table or two in a well trafficked area and ask gentles to volunteer their time to staff the table, much like gate, for an hour or two. It would be on a drop by basis. Children could come with their parents at a time that suits them. The projects would be geared towards the younger crowd and, if it really works, have projects of varying difficulty to be offered. I've worked in the craft center and it's a very neat thing. Children work at different paces and this format allows them to do that. 

So one of my thoughts on this was to make a simple pouch. The best way to test out if something works is to make it yourself. So I did. I made a simple pouch with the idea that I could embroider the game board on the inside but I needed it to open flat. I went with a simple pouch. A plain colored lining with decorative outer. What became evident very quickly was that this was not going to be for the young ones. While the pouch I made (easily with the help of a sewing machine) is useful and pretty, it's not something that could be finished at the table, which is a priority. At 75% of the work of the project should be able to be completed in 20 min or less. That's the goal.

Being the stubborn person that I am, I wasn't  going to give up so easily. So I have a theory in mind that uses felt and hole punches. I'm hoping it will work but I need to try it first. The theory I think is sound and I'm looking forward to trying this out. Like classes children would be charged for their kits but I would try to keep it down to only a dollar or two. 

More news to come as I try to make this happen. 

A Proper Super Tunic

***PLEASE BE PATIENT THIS POST IS IMAGE-HEAVY***

I am very excited to be going to Pennsic this year. Sadly, after having my second baby my body doesn't resemble what it used to. Needless to say that I now need make more garb and alter the few things that I can, in order to have a workable wardrobe for Pennsic.

Woman's outfit, from an 11th century illustrated
manuscript in the British Museum.

One of the pieces that I used to have (it seems to have walked off somewhere) was a super tunic or an over tunic called a Gunna, in the fashion of the Saxon women, like the one to the right. It was not one of my best pieces of work. I had made it in the "quick and dirty" fashion. That is, I took my existing tunic dress (folded in half lengthwise) and placed it on another piece of fabric folded in quarters. I traced the shape I wanted according to the existing dress. Like the picture below, right. It was something done on the spur of the moment and the finishing was awful. The fit wasn't perfect but I t was comfortable and easy to wear. With all that in mind I decided to make another.

"Quick and dirty" method.

I don't usually like using what I call "icky" fabric like rayon, nylon, and polyester. I do however make exceptions. This is one of those times. While there are a lot of cons to using this kind of fabric like no breathability, odd textures, and it's tendency to melt when touched with fire, there are a few good things to keep in mind. Many of these fabrics are hard to wrinkle and generally wrinkle less when packed. Need to look great on the first day at an event and don't have time to let something hang out to get the wrinkles out of that linen? Also, I find that these fabrics are harder to stain. The big clincher: the price. Linen/Rayon blends are cheaper than straight linen and even linen/cotton blends in many cases.

Pieced sleeve. 4 pieces to achieve the desired bell shape. 

In any case I found myself with a bright teal piece of fabric that seemed to suit my purpose. Like I usually do I washed the fabric and dried it on the hottest setting. (This is what's meant by pre-shrinking folks. Do it before so you don't wind up with a child size later.) After all of that I ironed it and measured the final dimensions. Then came the planning. I know what I want it to look like: a full skirt reaching to my knees and a fairly decent bell sleeve that falls to my elbow. The fabric is sufficiently small that I had to get a bit creative in my layout and piecing of the sleeves. I've put a picture of one of my completed sleeves to the left. I had debated on whether or not I was going to surge my fabric but after seeing how easily it was coming apart it was a no-brainer.It was coming apart easier than some linens I know. I put a before and after image below.

Top seam: serged. Bottom: not serged.

Non-serged seams. 

Main material with sleeve lining.

 I also decided at this point that I had to make my over tunic a bit fancier. First of all I needed additional fabric for the gores of the skirt and secondly because I didn't want the seams to show inside my sleeve. A lining of something fancy was in order. A while back I picked up several pieces of fabric from the remnants bin at Osgood's. So many good finds! In any case I have a light blue satin with vines that will do the trick nicely. I've added the picture below.I thought about doing the neck facing in the same material but in the end I didn't have enough.That's okay though. This was planned to be a use of odd bits, ends, and remnants.It's part of the reason that the sleeves turned out the way they did. So I put both the sleeves together and then just took them and traced them on to the lining fabric to make sure they matched up. The satin I didn't bother to piece and just did it in one whole piece. I had enough fabric to do it and then my OCD wouldn't kick in to try and match the pattern on each piece. I was working out of habit when I sewed my lining and sleeve together.I realized that the traditional methods of sewing weren't going to apply. Traditional methods of sewing the lining and main piece together are to sew the three sides together and then turn it inside out or sewing the separate pieces into tube than putting them together didn't really work. It didn't help that I had had to put them together over two days. I ended up going to bed saying, "Don't make that same mistake again tomorrow morning." It inevitably meant that I did make the same stupid mistake. Lesson learned! The end result was very nice and I was super excited to get the rest of it put together!

Both sleeves complete with lining.

Just taking a moment to show you the sleeves since I mentioned how they turned out earlier. Usually the sleeves would be rounded on the bottom, not squared off. The lining looks great and I'm really happy with how they look.

The sleeves done, it's time to tackle the main body part of the tunic. This is fairly straight forward. I'm not putting any gores in the front or back of this piece. Again, remember that I'm working with small fabric pieces to begin with. As it is I have to use the vine satin to put the side gores in. All I have of the solid teal-blue color is a strip about two inches wide.

After I've cut the gores out I'm faced with what to do about the neck facing. With not enough fabric of either to do the facing the way I usually do, I go diving into my remnant bin. I cam out with this dark goldenrod cotton which worked perfectly. Now I just had to decide on what kind of neck to do. I usually do the fastest thing for myself and, since this was fancier than most of the stuff I've made for myself, I decided to go with a keyhole type neck. The biggest thing for necklines is to place them properly. It's easiest to just find the center and layout your neckline over that. I took the time to do it properly: 2/3 of the opening in front and only 1/3 behind. The keyhole is a pain when I'm working towards a deadline but thanks to a hot iron and plenty of pins I was able to get it done in fairly short order. I put the picture below.

Neck facing 1/3 done while on the ironing board. 

Left side done! 

This also takes a lot of pins. And patience. It was well worth it though and after the neckline was done I was able to put my first sleeve on with the gore and I was happy with how it looked. Though in retrospect I think I would attach the sleeves with the drape in back rather than against my ribs...It's not a huge deal and something I can fix easily down the line. You can see what I'm talking about in the picture to the right. As it stands now, when I'm moving, you can't really tell anyways. (See the picture at right, below.) Oh, and disregard the orange dress peeking out from under the blue dress in the pictures at right!

Left side, arm raised.

Putting on the last sleeve and gore was a snap. I was able to finish it and hem it all in about four hours. (Interrupted time...baby, husband, etc.) I've put the pictures of the completed right side and the completed, hemmed garment below. Yay! My first new piece of garb in four years...*lol*

Completed, hemmed supertunic.

Completed  right side.

Post Baby Garb

So I know it's been a while since my last post but I think you can expect many more soon. After having my second baby, a healthy girl, none of my garb fits. Not only that but I need to remake or fix a lot of the stuff I have. It's a bit aggravating but after child birth your body changes and, well, my garb is now looking like it was made for someone else. In a sense it was I guess.

I started on updating my wardrobe last night by making the first piece of my Persian outfit. I did my research and while striped fabric wasn't often used in period other than for the lower classes it was what I had on hand. 100% Cotton teal stripe, a fabric I picked up a few years ago as an impulse buy. I figured that I would find a use for it eventually and I was right! I figured that the finished pants would be light weight and comfy enough for both summer and winter events. I followed Rashid's pattern for 16th century Salwar pants for my first attempt which I've put below:

 I followed the instructions with no changes (always a good idea for the first time around) with one exception: I didn't guess on the measurement for the ankle opening. Instead, I measured around the heel and top of my foot, at the ankle, while my foot was pointed. As if I was putting on pants. Since this pattern works on a fold I simply halved that measurement and drew my diagonal line to there. I also upped the thirteen inch  rise measurement to fifteen since I am taller than the average woman. In the end I don't think that it was necessary but better to be safe than sorry the first time around! While I did measure in the recommended way, I feel like the pants are a little long. I may shorten the rise on the next pair or modify these if they I find that they're too long. I need to get some input from someone who makes them on a regular basis.

Today I'll start working on a kamiz using Rashid's pattern for a 14th century Kamiz/Pirihan. I'm using slightly thicker material than would be ideal but we'll see how it goes! I'll post pictures of the pants soon!